NOP Issues for Research & Extension
generated by a group brainstorm at SCOAR Assembly, Rock Hill, SC, Nov. 4, 2001

1. Materials review: basis for approval/rejection, develop alternatives
2. Animal feed rations
3. Organic seed production
4. Pasture access/management
5. Certification of research plots and variances for materials
Institutional roles: LGUs linked to NOP outreach to researchers
6. System design in response to materials limitations
7. Scientific basis of “animal welfare”
8. Consumer research: understanding labels
9. Relationships of farm plans, practices, and on-farm outcomes (e.g. environmental impacts)
10. Standards for germplasm and untreated seed (for organic breeding)
11. Health and nutritional qualities of organic foods
12. Food safety issues and sanitation
13. Compost: analytic methods, herbicide and metal content
14. Copper fungicide alternatives
15. Raw manure handling
16. Fertility results of green manures: varieties, timing, mineralization, micronutrients
17. Crop variety trials under organic conditions
18. Livestock breeding for organic systems
19. Science-based changes to the Rule?
20. treatment of transgenic contamination?
21. Expanding capacity for materials review
22. Seed treatments and coatings
23. Livestock medications
24. Animal feeding studies to test health qualities
25. Pesticide residue still important
26. Use of IR-4 program?
27. Use of RAMP etc. for materials studies?
28. Access to organic livestock feed
29. Integration of livestock into crop systems for fertility
30. Basis for removing materials from list
31. Breeding for horizontal resistance
32. Economic data on practices and markets
33. Weed management: system conditions
34. Post-GMO certification
35. Chlorine alternatives
36. USDA communication to consumers? What claims are made/defendable?
37. Standards for farmworkers’ conditions
38. Social impacts of organic
39. Consequences of scale and trade
40. Post-harvest treatment alternatives
41. Study how organic can improve and regenerate soil, air, and water quality